“The sails were rotten”: Fragmentary Memorandum by Wilbur Wright, circa September 13, 1900, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 24.
“a little uneasy”: Ibid.
“struck the boat from below with a heavy shock”: Ibid.
“At 11 o’clock the wind had increased to a gale”: Ibid.
a highly dangerous maneuver: Ibid., 25.
He would not land on sandbars: Orville to Katharine, October 14, 1900, ibid., 33.
“The community of Kitty Hawk at that time”: Captain W. J. Tate, “With the Wrights at Kitty Hawk: Anniversary of First Flight Twenty-five Years Ago,” Aeronautic Review, December 1928; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 283.
“double-barreled ISOLATION”: Ibid., 284.
Houses had little in the way of furniture: Interviews conducted by historian Bill Harris with Kitty Hawk residents who lived on the Outer Banks during the time of the Wright brothers’ experiments.
“proceeded to unfold a tale of hardship”: Tate, “With the Wrights at Kitty Hawk: Anniversary of First Flight Twenty-five Years Ago,” Aeronautic Review, December 1928; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 280.
“no carpets at all”: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, September 23, 1900, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 25–26.
a beautiful white French sateen: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, November 16, 1900, ibid., 41.
“I have my machine nearly finished”: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, September 23, 1900, ibid., 26.
“The man who wishes to keep at the problem”: Ibid.
“every precaution” about his drinking water: Ibid., 27.
“darn fool contraption”: Tate, “With the Wrights at Kitty Hawk: Anniversary of First Flight Twenty-five Years Ago,” Aeronautic Review, December 1928; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 281.
“We believed in a good God”: Ibid., 279.
“soaring machine”: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, November 16, 1900, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 40.
With everything in place: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, November 16, 1900, and November 26, 1900, ibid., 40–46.
the “horizontal” rudder: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, November 26, 1900, ibid., 46.
With Wilbur aboard as “operator”: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, November 16, 1900, ibid., 42.
“May the wind be ever at your back”: Author unknown, “An Irish Wish,” Respectfully Quoted, 277.
“We’ve been having a fine time”: Orville to Katharine, October 14, 1900, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“too strong and unsteady”: Ibid.
“It naturally wants to go higher and higher”: Ibid.
in a heap 20 feet away: Ibid.
“The site of our tent was formerly a fertile valley”: Ibid.
“you see dozens of them”: Ibid.
“It’s just like in the north”: Ibid.
“pitiable”: Ibid.
bedbugs, mosquitoes, and wood ticks: Ibid.
“The vulture’s needs are few”: Wilbur Wright, “What Mouillard Did,” Aero Club of America Bulletin, April 1912; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 173.
“The buzzard which uses”: Wilbur Wright’s Notebook A [1900–] 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 34.
“All soarers, but especially the buzzard”: Ibid.
“We couldn’t help thinking”: William O. Saunders, “Then We Quit Laughing: Interview with John T. Daniels,” Collier’s Weekly, September 17, 1927; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 275.
“Learning the secret of flight”: Howard, Wilbur and Orville, 33.
a “very tame” mockingbird: Orville to Katharine, October 14, 1900, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“When we crawl out of the tent”: Orville to Katharine, October 18, 1900, ibid.
“We each have two blankets”: Ibid.
“Well, part of the time we eat hot biscuits”: Orville to Katharine, October 14, 1900, ibid.
words like “disremember” for “forget”: Wolfram and Schilling-Estes, Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue, 39–49; Discussions with historians Bill Harris and Sarah Downing at Outer Banks Historic Center, Manteo, North Carolina.
“Doc” Cogswell: Orville to Katharine, October 18, 1900, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“two of the workingest boys”: Saunders, “Then We Quit Laughing”; Jakab & Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur & Orville Wright, 275.
had to fire the young man: Orville to Katharine, October 14, 1900, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“not a tree or bush anywhere”: William Tate to Wilbur, August 18, 1900, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC; Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk, 26.
“And although in appearance”: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, November 16, 1900, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 43.
“a pleasure trip”: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, September 23, 1900, ibid., 27.
“without having our pet theories”: Wilbur Wright, “Some Aeronautical Experiments,” Smithsonian Report for 1902.
From the undamaged portions: Tobin, To Conquer the Air, 91.
“improved construction in its details”: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, May 12, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 54.
“entirely free” on Sundays: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, May 17, 1901, ibid., 55.
He arrived at 7 Hawthorn Street on June 26: Milton Wright, Diaries, 1857–1917, 551.
Charles—Charlie—Taylor had been born on a farm: Taylor, “My Story of the Wright Brothers”; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 293.
just to “gas”: Ibid., 285.
none was to so aggravate sister Katharine: Katharine to Orville, October 5, 1902, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
Wilbur and Orville left Dayton together: Milton Wright, Diaries, 1857–1917, 551–52.
winds recorded at 93 miles an hour: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, July 26, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 70.
sharing the most uncomfortable bed: Orville to Katharine, July 28, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
no source of fresh water within a mile: Ibid.
“grand institution with awnings at both ends”: Ibid.
they built a long, solid shed: Chanute-Huffaker diary, July 18, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 69.
“in the form of a mighty cloud, almost darkening the sun”: Orville to Katharine, July 28, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“as nothing” by comparison: Ibid.
“Our blankets then became unbearable”: Ibid.
Edward Huffaker of Chuckey City, Tennessee: Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, July 3, 1901, McFarland, ed., Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 65.
He arrived in the last days of the mosquito siege: Orville to Katharine, July 28, 1901, ibid., 74–75.
“mechanical facility”: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, July 26, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“character building”: Wilbur to George Spratt, September 21, 1901; George Spratt to Wilbur, November 17, 1901, and January 31, 1902, ibid.
But no sooner was the machine up: Crouch, The Bishop’s Boys, 208–9.
Something was “radically wrong”: McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 108.
“the fix” that had plunged: Orville to Katharine, July 28, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“The adjustments of the machine are away off”: Ibid.
“The machine with its
new curvature”: Wilbur Wright, “Some Aeronautical Experiments,” Smithsonian Report for 1902.
“Mr. Huffaker remarked”: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, July 26, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
helping himself to one of Wilbur’s blankets: Wilbur to George Spratt, September 21, 1901, ibid.
“groping in the dark”: Tobin, To Conquer the Air, 113.
“not in a thousand years would man ever fly”: Kelly, The Wright Brothers, 72.
how disagreeable Edward Huffaker had been: Katharine to Bishop Wright, August 26, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
4. Unyielding Resolve
“We had to go ahead and discover everything ourselves”: Orville Wright, “How I Learned to Fly,” Boys’ Life, September 1914; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 53.
“He was at work the following day”: Washington Post, October 4, 1908.
“We knew that it would take considerable time”: Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 60.
“boys” . . . “scientific” investigations: Katharine to Bishop Wright, October 12, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“We don’t hear anything but flying machine”: Katharine to Bishop Wright, September 3, 1901, ibid.
“as thrilling interest as any in the field”: Wilbur Wright, “Some Aeronautical Experiments,” Smithsonian Report for 1902.
an invitation from Octave Chanute for Wilbur to address: Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, August 29, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 91.
“nagged” him into going: Katharine to Bishop Wright, September 3, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
Only days later, in the first week of September: Dayton Evening News, September 7, 1901; Milton Wright, Diaries, 1857–1917, 555.
“arrayed in Orv’s shirt”: Katharine to Bishop Wright, September 25, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
Never had he looked “so ‘swell’ ”: Ibid.
“Ladies’ Night”: Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, September 5, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 93.
“I will already be as badly scared”: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, September 6, 1901, ibid.
“Pathetic”: Katharine to Bishop Wright, September 11, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
private study was so chock-full of models: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, October 24, 1901, ibid.
“two gentlemen from Dayton, Ohio”: Introduction by President Chanute, “Some Aeronautical Experiments,” Smithsonian Report for 1902.
“the Book of Genesis of the twentieth-century”: Howard, Wilbur and Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers, 71.
“settle steadily down as a staid, sensible piece of paper”: Wilbur Wright, “Some Aeronautical Experiments,” Smithsonian Report for 1902.
“Do not be afraid of making it too technical”: Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, September 25, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 119.
“somewhat in error”: Wilbur Wright, “Some Aeronautical Experiments,” Smithsonian Report for 1902.
“a devilish good paper”: Octave Chanute to Wilbur, November 27, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 168.
Some of the letters ran: See letters of Wilbur to Octave Chanute from October 6, 1901 to December 23, 1901, The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“The first successful flyer will be”: Newcomb, “Is the Airship Coming?” McClure’s Magazine, September 17, 1901.
“lift” and “drag” of a wing’s surface: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, August 29, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 86.
“investigations”: Katharine to Bishop Wright, October 12, 1901, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“balances” or “airfoils”: See McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 556–57.
“those metal models told us how to build”: Orville Wright, “How I Learned to Fly,” Boys’ Life, September 1914; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 52.
“It is perfectly marvelous to me”: Octave Chanute to Wilbur, November 18, 1901, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 156.
his letters were always too brief: Octave Chanute to Wilbur, November 27, 1901, ibid., 168.
“Never in the history of the world”: Aeronautical Journal, Vols. 19–20, Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, 1915, 72.
“A calm survey”: Crouch, A Dream of Wings: Americans and the Airplane, 1825–1905, 17.
“Practically all the expense”: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, October 24, 1901, McFarland, The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 142.
“Would you like for me to write to him?”: Octave Chanute to Wilbur, December 19, 1901, ibid., 183.
“too hardheaded a Scotchman”: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, December 23, 1901, ibid., 187.
“aeronautical experts”: Wright Family Scrapbooks, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
At the same time the family was facing: Tobin, To Conquer the Air, 136–37, 206, 230; Crouch, The Bishop’s Boys, 41, 43, 51–52, 63–69, 78–86, 215–18, 302; Chicago Chronicle, August 24, 1902; Wilbur to Octave Chanute, May 28, 1905, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 493.
“My chief regret”: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, February 15, 1902, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“The question of whether officials shall rob”: Ibid.
In mid-March, Wilbur took the train: Milton Wright, Diaries, 1857–1917, 566.
“very crooked”: Ibid., 567.
“an exposé of Keiter’s defalcations”: Ibid.
an “egotist”: Crouch, The Bishop’s Boys, 217.
“absolutely inconceivable, incomprehensible”: Wilbur to Reuchlin Wright, May 20, 1902, The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“finding new instances of his stealing”: Ibid.
“When my father and myself came to examine”: Wilbur Wright, “The Church Trial at Huntington,” August 15, 1902, ibid.
“things are moving nicely”: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, August 18, 1902, ibid.
“Will is thin and nervous”: Katharine to Bishop Wright, August 20, 1902, ibid.
“Some say the boys just go camping”: McMahon, The Wright Brothers: Fathers of Flight, 110.
“Will spins the sewing machine around”: Katharine to Bishop Wright, August 20, 1902, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“He was completely unnerved”: Katharine to Bishop Wright, August 20, 1902, ibid.
“We’ll never stop fighting now, Pop”: Katharine to Bishop Wright, September 9, 1902, ibid.
“too weary for words”: Katharine to Wilbur and Orville, September 4, 1902, ibid.
making an unprecedented $25 a week: Katharine to Bishop Wright, September 27, 1902, ibid.
“His former friends have become”: Bishop Wright to Estella Petree, October 2, 1907, Milton Wright Collection, Huntington University, Huntington, Indiana.
get used to some of Charlie Taylor’s peculiarities: Orville to Katharine, September 11, 1902, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“royal luxuries”: Wilbur to Katharine, August 31, 1902, ibid.
“He met with a rather warm reception”: Orville to Katharine, September 7, 1902, ibid.
“immensely improved”: Wilbur to George Spratt, September 16, 1902, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 253.
took only one hour, instead of three on foot: Ibid.
“learned to love ’em”: Saunders, “Then We Quit Laughing”; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 275.
“There are other improvements too numerous”: Wilbur to George Spratt, September 16, 1902, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 253.
“Monday, September 8. Finally began work”: Orville Wright’s diary, ibid., 249.
“very satisfactory” results: Ibid., 258.
“without a bruise or a scratch”: Ibid, 260.
“My brother”: Wilbur to Octave Chanute, September 23, 1902, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 261.
Lorin Wright walked into camp: Wilbur to Bishop Wright, October 2, 1902, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“We are in splendid health”: Ibid.
“always ready to oppose an idea”: George Spratt to Octave Chanute, August 16, 1901, ibid.
“a good scrap”: Wilbur to George Spratt, April 20, 1903, ibid.
“as it makes us too conservative”: Ibid.
“hip cradle”: Kelly, The Wright Brothers, 79.
“shell of hauteur”: Tobin, To Conquer the Air, 61.
wrote at once to the brothers: See Wilbur to Octave Chanute, November 12, 1902, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 283.
5. December 17, 1903
“When we got up a wind”: Orville Wright’s diary, December 17, 1903, McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Vol. 1, 394.
“but if there is any hope for him”: Dayton Evening News, January 1, 1903.
No new year had “ever brought the people”: Albuquerque Journal-Democrat, January 2, 1903.
One of the few puzzling questions: Philadelphia Inquirer, January 1, 1903.
“Those two sure knew their physics”: Taylor, “My Story of the Wright Brothers”; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 288.
Aluminum Company of America: Orville Wright to ALCOA, December 1939, Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, LOC.
“The fuel system was simple”: Taylor, “My Story of the Wright Brothers”; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 288.
“The spark was made by the opening”: Ibid.
“little gas motor”: Milton Wright, Diaries, 1857–1917, 583.
“I think the hardest job”: Taylor, “My Story of the Wright Brothers”; Jakab and Young, eds., The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 288.
“Our minds . . . became so obsessed”: Orville Wright, “How We Made the First Flight,” Flying, December 1913; ibid., 41.